During the manufacturing of devices (e.g., mechanical, electromechanical, and electrical devices), an assembly device is often utilized to drive a component (e.g., such as a fastener) into the device being assembled in order to connect together components of the device. Examples of fasteners may include: screws, bolts, rivets, plugs, etc.; which are used to connect together components of the device being manufactured. Fastener mechanisms (e.g., such as automated screw drivers) are often used in large volume device manufacturing. In particular, fastener mechanisms are commonly used in high-tech device manufacturing.
Due to the complexity of high-tech devices and the cost competitiveness of the high-tech industry, the components of high-tech devices need to be assembled in a precise and time effective manner. Examples of high-tech devices include: disk drives, storage devices, computing devices, personal computers, laptop computers, server computers, mobile computers, mobile devices, wireless devices, etc. In particular, in order to be cost effective, complex components of high-tech devices need to be assembled, with fasteners, such as screws, in a very time effective and precise manner.
Further, because design changes in high-tech devices are occurring at ever increasing rates, as well as new devices coming on-line at ever increasing rates, assembly stations that utilize fastener mechanisms to assemble devices need to be highly flexible in order to adjust the positioning of the fastener mechanisms to connect together device components at different locations.
Unfortunately, many assembly stations utilize fixed-positioned fastener mechanisms, which, while cost effective, cannot adequately accommodate the ever increasing design changes that require the changing of the positions of the fastener mechanisms. On the other hand, programmable robotic-based assembly stations may be able to accommodate design changes, but they require timely and costly re-programming for the changed positioning of the fastener mechanisms. Further, programmable robotic-based assembly stations are inherently expensive.